Loan Kim Nguyen's purse was stolen at a Halloween-night party in San Francisco - and that's all it took to trigger a horrific chain of events that soon had a stalker virtually kidnapping her, haunting her and then, one month later, bursting into her home and fatally shooting her as she handed her toddlers out a window.

That was the picture painted by San Mateo police Thursday when they revealed the findings of their probe into what led Raymond Gee, 22, to take the former beauty pageant contestant and her children hostage in their house on Nov. 25 before firing deadly bullets into her, and then his own head.

"This was a tragic murder-suicide perpetrated by the suspect," police Capt. Kevin Raffaelli said at a department press conference.

"That's all it was."

Cell phone ruse

Raffaelli said the saga began when Gee, at the Halloween party, suggested 24-year-old Nguyen use his cell phone to call hers to locate her missing purse. The ruse was ominous.

"He told her that he now had her cell phone number," Raffaelli said, and then badgered her into letting him take her home to San Mateo. But instead of heading straight there, the Oakland man drove aimlessly for hours, forcing e-mail and MySpace addresses out of Nguyen before finally letting her out at home, said Raffaelli.

He only released her after she promised to have lunch with him, Raffaelli said. But once she got inside she told her husband, banker Dennis Quan, she was terrified.

"She was visibly upset and crying," the captain said.

From then on, Gee unleashed an unceasing barrage of e-mails and phone calls - all unreturned by Nguyen - and furtive appearances outside her house and in the neighborhood, once bizarrely disguised with a towel around his head, the captain said.

Then came Nov. 25.

That morning, said Raffaelli, Gee came to the house carrying a knife, handcuffs, pepper spray and muscle relaxants and hid in a side yard. When Quan left for work Gee cut the home's power and sneaked into the partially opened garage door.

Nguyen summoned her husband back and he restored the power, but when he left just around 9:30 a.m. the horror began. Gee entered the home and began beating Nguyen, handcuffing her briefly, said Raffaelli.

At some point, she was free enough to call 911 but all dispatchers could hear was her children crying and muffled voices, Raffaelli said. The phone disconnected, and the next call made was by Nguyen text-messaging her husband to say an intruder was in the house.

Police arrived to see, through windows, Gee walking down a hallway. They called to him but he did not respond, Raffaelli said. They saw Nguyen in a bedroom and called to her, "but then they heard her cry out" as she was being beaten, he said.

Police tried to come inside but Gee fired a shot from his 9mm handgun that hit a door frame, "missing an officer by inches," Raffaelli said, so they retreated. Nguyen broke free, hid in a back bedroom and called police to tell them she could hand her children - a son, 3, and daughter, 1 - out the window. Then her cell phone battery died.

The next contact officers had with Nguyen was when they stood on a car roof and pulled out her toddlers, Raffaelli said. She'd just managed to hand the second one through when Gee spied her from a bathroom window and fired 10 rounds. Three bullets came through the wall and hit Nguyen in the back. Four struck the window sill where, seconds before, the children had been.

Police shot back, but Gee retreated to another room, placed the gun under his chin and fired the round that killed him. Nguyen later died at Stanford Hospital. Police concluded that none of their bullets hit anyone.

"This is a tragedy of immense proportions," said San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer. "What we have is a very young mother, who at great danger to herself, made a heroic effort to save herself and died."

Manheimer added that accounts from some witnesses that Nguyen owed Gee money have so far proven to be unfounded. She expressed condolences to the family of Gee, saying, "We realize it is difficult" for them.

Sister's views

Gee's sister, Jackie Gee, said she felt badly for Nguyen's family, but she found it hard to accept the account of her brother's actions.

"My brother was a nice guy, and we can't understand how this happened," she said. "I want to see proof."

Meanwhile, details emerged this week that showed Gee's life had its own share of turmoil in the months leading up to his rampage.

Records show that he was sentenced in San Francisco Superior Court in July on a drug conviction, but under a deal made with prosecutors, Gee was diverted to drug treatment rather than serve 10 months in jail. The conviction stemmed from an arrest in February, when officers found first a 9mm handgun in the trunk of the car he was driving, and later seven pounds of marijuana in the same trunk.

Before he was sentenced, Gee was placed in the Freedom from Alcohol and Drugs in the Sunset District and ordered to obey a nighttime curfew. Prosecutors said they had no idea if he was fulfilling the treatment rules at the time.

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.